Kim Swee Accepts Defeat Against Japan, Says His Men Were Unlucky

BEKASI, Aug 25 (Bernama) -- National men's Under-23 (U-23) football squad coach Ong Kim Swee Friday acknowledged that Japan was the better team in the 2018 Asian Games football round of 16 match at the Patriot Chandrabhaga Stadium here Friday night. However, he said his team was unlucky after showing high discipline in fending off all of the Samurai Blue's attacks as well as creating some fantastic chances of their own. "Before the game, we knew that the Japanese had a strong team and many striking options and we could see that it's a different team when they played against Vietnam and a different team against Malaysia. Even though we managed to hold them up until the 87th minute, they kept on trying. "That's the difference where they make the chances count, and we did not convert earlier...we got punished, but overall the players did what they had to do and unfortunately we could not hold the Japanese until extra time," he told reporters at the post-match press conference here. Japan beat Malaysia 1-0 in a dramatic match which saw substitute Ayase Ueda's penalty in the 88th minute erase the country's dream of advancing to the quarter-finals. Commenting further, Kim Swee said there was little difference between his men and that of Hajime Moriyasu. "They (Japan) are more superior but we made it difficult for them and at the end of the day we are not far away - I think in terms of age group, and we just need to work harder," he added. Malaysia had advanced to the knockout round as Group E champions after winning two matches including a shock 2-1 victory over defending champions South Korea in the second group game, before losing 2-3 to Bahrain in last one. — BERNAMA